by Tanada » Sun 08 Jul 2018, 21:16:19
Newfie wrote:The bigger problem is the water rights issue between India and Pakistan.
I read they were in DC a couple of weeks ago negotiating. But have heard nothing since.
Over the last three decades I have seen the topic of a regional nuclear war over water rights between Pakistan and India come up repeatedly. Basically if you neighbor is choking off the water supply to your dying population would you nuke their dam structures to release the water back to its natural flow? Or even do a direct launch against their population centers and military bases?
For a long time the fear has been that any regional nuclear war will go global, but this is not necessarily the case because the world of treaties is not a mutual suicide pact where one can start a war and automatically drag everyone else down with themselves. However depending on season of the year and how intense the bombing is the climate effects might be global even if the war stays local. If enough dust and smoke get injected high enough you could see a 2 or even 3 year 'period without a summer' in the northern hemisphere where the stratospheric clouds would be confined for the first few months. Mount Pinotubo in the Philippines is at roughly the same latitude and its ash cloud caused a hemisphere wide 2C drop in temperatures and stunted some crops from haze blocking UV from feeding the plants. Now picture 10 or 20 times the amount of dust in the same atmospheric zone making the first year effect much more intense. Because of the way dust works it will all precipitate out eventually, probably within 3 years, 5 at the most, but nearly all crops are grown in the northern hemisphere and darn few people have a 5 year stockpile like they used to maintain when global trade was a theory, not a reality. Hemisphere wide crop failures would mean famine on a massive scale, likely killing many more people than direct effects of the war.
So yes, peak water is a concern, because when you are talking about nuclear weapon states and desperate times scary things can result before you know what happened.
I should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, write, balance accounts, build a wall, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, pitch manure, program a computer, cook, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
